Carnage 1984http://www.cgpi.org/category/keywords/carnage-1984
enThe genocide of 1984 must never be forgotten!http://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/4342-genocide-1984-must-never
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The genocide of 1984 must never be forgotten!</span>
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<span>Thu, 12/11/2015 - 12:14</span>
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/nov-16-30-2015" hreflang="en">Nov 16-30 2015</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Thirty one years ago, from the early hours of November 1, 1984, the people of Delhi and the rest of Northern India were witness to unforgettable and unforgiveable crimes against humanity.</p><p>Led by top leaders of the Congress Party, killer mobs took over the city of Delhi for a full 72 hours. Any person of the Sikh faith who fell into their clutches was mercilessly attacked and burnt alive. With voters list in their hands, they went around the different colonies of Delhi in the buses provided by the government, identifying Sikh homes. They pulled out the men and boys, doused them in kerosene and set them on fire, and raped the women and girls. They attacked the <em>gurudwaras</em>, looted and destroyed the homes and shops of people of the Sikh faith. The same pattern was repeated in Kanpur and many other cities of Northern India. Those Sikhs who happened to be traveling in trains or buses, were pulled out and brutally murdered. During the 72 hours this genocide lasted, at least 10,000 Sikhs were murdered in Delhi alone. Thousands more were killed in other parts of the country.</p><p>Far from protecting the people, the Delhi Police actively assisted the killer mobs. Where ever the people prepared to defend themselves, the police disarmed them under the excuse that they should “not provoke” the mobs. They then incited the mobs to massacre the defenseless people. All the Sikh officers and men of the Delhi Police were ordered to remain in the barracks. When some retired Generals and Air Marshals of the Sikh faith asked the then Union Home Minister PV Narasimha Rao to take steps to stop the carnage, he took no action. The Army stationed in Delhi Cantonment and in other cantonments of Northern India watched the carnage silently. Meanwhile the state owned TV Channel Doordarshan kept broadcasting the slogans of the bloodthirsty mobs — <em>“Khoon Ka Badla Khoon</em>”.</p><p>The official explanation for the genocide of the Sikhs has been that it was a “spontaneous reaction” of people to the murder of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allegedly by her Sikh body-guards. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi declared at a public rally of his party supporters soon after the carnage that “<em>When a big tree falls, the earth shakes</em>”. </p><p>In fact, there was nothing spontaneous about the genocide. All over the country, the lie was spread by the leaders of the Congress Party that Sikhs had poisoned the wells, and that Sikhs were distributing sweets to celebrate the assassination of Indira Gandhi. They distributed voters list, kerosene, and rubber tyres to the killer mobs. They assured the killer mobs that the police and government were with them and they had nothing to fear when they went about killing and looting. They were repeatedly instructed not to leave a single Sikh man or boy alive.</p><p>While it has never been conclusively proven as to who killed Indira Gandhi, the fact that she was killed by her own bodyguards only points to the crisis within the state. Why should the people of the Sikh faith be punished for this? No one in authority has ever answered this question for the past 31 years.</p><p>The genocide of Sikhs in November 1984 was one link in a chain of events taking place in Punjab and India at that time. It was preceded by deliberate inflaming of communal passions. In Punjab, Hindu passengers were systematically pulled out of buses and shot dead by terrorist gangs. These acts were attributed by the police and government to Sikh terrorist groups. Later on, it has been admitted by top officials of the Punjab police that several of such incidents were actually the handiwork of the police themselves. “Hit lists” of politicians who were on the target of terrorist groups were widely circulated in the media and several politicians on these hit lists were murdered. Systematic propaganda was carried out to make out that all Sikhs were terrorists and separatists, enemies of “national unity and territorial integrity” of India, and Pakistani agents.</p><p>In such a climate of anarchy and violence, the Indira Gandhi government ordered the army attack on the Golden Temple on June 6, 1984.Thousands of innocent men, women and children were mercilessly murdered in this attack. The declassification of secret documents by the British Government a year ago has confirmed that the British Intelligence agencies and the Indian Intelligence agencies collaborated closely in planning this attack. This attack was prepared months in advance. The excuse given for the attack was that Sikhs in the Golden Temple were planning to organize the massacre of all Hindus in Punjab! This was nothing but a white lie! Following the attack on the Golden Temple, the Army attacked numerous Gurudwaras all over Punjab.</p><p>All those who condemned the genocide of Sikhs and the Army assault on the Golden Temple were declared to be <em>anti-national</em>. A massive communal and fascist propaganda campaign was unleashed portraying that the unity and territorial integrity of India was being endangered by the people of Sikh faith. Elections were organized in the midst of a climate of terror, with the communal slogan “Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan”. Within Punjab, state terror was unleashed on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of innocent Sikh youth were picked up from their homes in their villages, and brutally murdered in fake encounters, their bodies thrown into the canals. All over the country, tens of thousands were arrested and incarcerated in jails under the fascist law called TADA. </p><p>For 31 long years, the people of India have been demanding justice for the victims of the genocide of 1984. “Punish the guilty of November 1984” has been the rallying call not just of the victims of this genocide, but of all those who want an end to state terrorism including state organized genocides.</p><p>During these 31 years, numerous governments have come and gone. Under pressure from the people, numerous Commissions of Enquiry have been set up. However the fact remains that no one has been punished for this genocide that was carried out in broad daylight.</p><p>The fact that no one has been punished for the November 1984 genocide shows that it is a matter of state policy to organise such large-scale political crimes. Such criminal deeds are necessary for the ruling class to maintain its rule. That is why no action is taken, either to reveal the truth or to punish the guilty, no matter which party forms the government.</p><p>While Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly accuses the Congress Party of organizing the genocide of Sikhs, the CBI which is under the control of his government issues a “clean chit” to a top Congress politician who is known to have led the attacks on Sikhs in November 1984. The UPA government, throughout its ten year rule, accused the Narendra Modi led Gujarat government for organizing the genocide of Muslims in 2002, and at the same time gave a clean chit to Modi and other senior leaders of BJP in Gujarat.</p><p>Anyone who studies the facts without prejudice cannot but conclude that both BJP and the Congress are communal parties which are guilty of using the state machinery to organise large-scale massacres targeted at specific religious communities. There is no justification, whatsoever, for calling one of them communal and the other secular. Both of them have unleashed communal violence and at the same time preached “<em>communal harmony</em>”, in the typical two-timing style learnt from the British colonialists.</p><p>At the present time, there is a great deal of propaganda that the root cause of communal and caste-based violence is the “intolerance” of some group of fanatics. This propaganda is aimed at hiding the role of political parties like the Congress and BJP, and the rest of the state machinery. Fanatical groups cannot by themselves achieve anything if they did not have official backing of the State. The lesson of the genocide of 1984 and all the other communal massacres that have followed is this — Unleashing communal and fascist terror is a preferred weapon of the ruling capitalist class and the state it controls to terrorise our people, and smash our unity.</p><p>What does the collective experience of our people of the past 31 years with the political system and process of multi-party democracy show? It shows that this system and political process divides the polity on communal and caste lines. Every party that contends for power in this system reinforces these divisions, even while it accuses its rivals of organising along communal and caste lines. While the human identity is constantly negated, the religious and caste identities are constantly reinforced.</p><p>The entire system, including the Constitution which legitimises this system, is based on accepting the colonialist thesis of dividing the Indian people into a so called ”Hindu majority” and other religious minorities. It is based on deepening caste divisions. In sum, the political system and process, the parties that merge with this system and fight for power, and the Constitution on which this system is based, are all communal. </p><p>It would be a grave mistake to identify communal and fascist terror merely with the rule of one set of parties that are openly communal. We must not forget that the British colonialists sponsored, as part of their divide and rule strategy, both openly communal organisations and so-called secular parties that preached “<em>tolerance</em>” and “<em>fair play</em>”. Today, too, the Indian capitalist class rules through both openly communal and so-called secular parties, both of which work to divide and divert the people and push the agenda of the capitalist class. </p><p>The rulers of our country have further perfected the anti-people and communal state they inherited from the colonialists 68 years ago. Each arm of this state —the political parties that take turns in running the government, the police, army and administration, and the judiciary — plays its designated role in smashing the unity of the people through the unleashing of communal and fascist terror.</p><p>We must recognise that the growth of communal and fascist terror is a feature of this period not only in our country but on the world scale. Under the slogan of “war against terrorism”, fascist laws have been promulgated in the US, Britain, France and other imperialist countries. The people of the Muslim faith are being made the target of this worldwide communal and fascist terror. Side by side with this campaign against “Islamic terrorism” the imperialists are stepping up the attacks on the working class at home. Simultaneously, the imperialists have been deploying their agencies including terrorist groups created by them, to destabilise other countries. A dangerous situation confronts our people and the world’s peoples. </p><p>Today once again, 31 years after 1984, Punjab is on a boil. The Indian ruling class and its various political parties, and the imperialists are busy inflaming passions, this time over the desecration of the holy book of the Sikhs. People need to be vigilant and prevent their enemies from achieving their destructive aims.</p><p>The working class and peasantry of our country have refused to accept lying down, the attacks on their livelihood and rights. The people who have been target of communal and fascist terror have been fighting courageously to punish the guilty. These two struggles are not separate. The enemy is the same. The enemy is the ruling capitalist class headed by the biggest monopolies, who control the state apparatus and use it to crush the aspirations of our people for a life of prosperity and security.</p><p>The Communist Ghadar Party firmly believes that as long as the present state continues to exist, no change of parties in power will ensure that communal and fascist terror is ended, and those guilty of organising such crimes are punished.</p><p>All those who want to ensure that genocides such as 1984 are never organized again need to come under one banner to reconstitute India on new foundations. We need to establish a new state with a new political system and process that will ensure that decision making power vests with the people. Such a new state will guarantee the right to conscience and all other human rights and ensure their inviolability. No person should have to face humiliation, persecution or insecurity or feel discriminated against merely on account of their views, the religion they practice, or on any other basis.</p><p>On the occasion of the 31<sup>st</sup> anniversary of the genocide of Sikhs, the CGPI calls upon all political forces who are concerned about the growing communal and fascist terror to unite around the program of establishing a new state in place of the existing fascist and communal state, in order to ensure prosperity and security for all our people.</p></div>
Thu, 12 Nov 2015 06:44:45 +0000cgpiadmin4342 at http://www.cgpi.orgMassive Rally held in Delhi to condemn state terrorism of 1984http://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/4320-massive-rally-held-delhi
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Massive Rally held in Delhi to condemn state terrorism of 1984</span>
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<span>Mon, 02/11/2015 - 00:52</span>
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/nov-1-15-2015" hreflang="en">Nov 1-15 2015</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><!--break--><p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/20151101-march_-mandihouse_to_jantar_mantar-001-web_1.jpg" style="width: 448px; height: 299px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin: 5px;" /></p><p><strong>(The rally reverberated with the slogan "<em>Ek Par Hamla, Sab Par Hamla</em> ! - Attack on One, is Attack on All)</strong></p><p>On the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Sikh genocide of 1984, a massive rally and public meeting took place in Delhi on November 1, 2015. The rally was organized by Lok Raj Sangathan along with several other organisations. Hundreds marched from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar demanding that the guilty of 1984 massacre must be punished and calling on the people to unite to defend the right to conscience and to end state-organised communal and fascist terror.</p><p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/20151101-march_arriving_at_jantar_mantar-web1_9.jpg" height="299" width="448" /></p><p><strong>(Rally arriving at Jantar Mantar for Public Meeting)</strong></p><p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/20151101-public_meeting_at_jantar_mantar-web_1.jpg" height="299" width="448" /></p><p><strong>(Public Meeting at Jantar Mantar - Representatives of over 30 organsations addressed the public meeting)</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></div>
Sun, 01 Nov 2015 19:22:06 +0000cgpiadmin4320 at http://www.cgpi.orgThe guilty of 1984 massacre must be punished!http://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/4319-guilty-1984-massacre-must
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The guilty of 1984 massacre must be punished!</span>
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<span>Tue, 27/10/2015 - 16:50</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/nov-1-15-2015" hreflang="en">Nov 1-15 2015</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/voice-party" hreflang="en">Voice of the Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h2><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/red_rally_on_1984_carnage_1_nov_2015-english-banner.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 220px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin: 5px; float: left;" />Join the massive rally on Nov 1st 2015</h2><h3>The guilty of 1984 massacre must be punished!</h3><h3>Unite to end state-organised communal and fascist terror!</h3><h3>Fight to Defend Right to conscience!</h3><h4>Time &amp; Venue: 1 Novenber 2015, 1030AM, Mandi House to Jantar Manta.</h4><h4>Jointly organised by</h4><p>Communist Ghadar Party of India, Lok Raj Sangathan, Social Democratic Party of India, Sikh Forum, INSAF, Naya Daur Party, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign, Sikhi Sidak, Citizens for Democracy, Jamaat E islami Hind, United Muslims Front, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Student Islamic Organisation, Nishant Natya Manch, Sikh Youth Forum, CPIML (New Proletarian), Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Ulema Council of India, Bibek Trust, Delhi Shramik Sangathan, All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushwarat, Nagarik Parishad, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) and other organisations.<!--break--></p><p>On the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the Sikh genocide of 1984, a massive rally and public meeting will take place in Delhi On November 1st. The rally is being organized by Lok Raj Sangathan along with several other organisations. Hundreds of people will be marching from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar demanding that the guilty of 1984 must be punished and calling on the people to unite to defend the right to conscience and end state-organised communal and fascist terror.</p><p>The people of our country, belonging to all faiths and all regions, have been fighting ceaselessly for more than thirty years to ensure that the truth behind the carnage of 1984 be placed by the government of India before the people of our country, and those guilty of organizing it be punished. We have been demanding that mechanisms be established to ensure that such acts of state terrorism can never again be organised.</p><p>However, ten governments have come and gone in this period. Ten Commissions of Enquiry have submitted their reports. Till today, no government has accepted that it was the Indian state that organized the genocide. No one has been punished for the brutal murder in broad daylight of over 10,000 innocent people, the rape of women and girls, and the widespread destruction of property.</p><p>Entire experience since the end of British colonial rule, proved that no matter how many times parties change places in this system, the violence of the State against citizens has only grown from bad to worse. This shows that the root of the problem lies in the very foundation of the State we inherited in 1947.</p><p>More than 30 organisations will be participating in the rally. They include Lok Raj Sangathan, Social Democratic Party of India, Sikh Forum, Communist Ghadar Party of India, INSAF, Naya Daur Party, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign, Sikhi Sidak, Citizens for Democracy, Jamaat E islami Hind, United Muslims Front, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Student Islamic Organisation, Nishant Natya Manch, Sikh Youth Forum, CPIML (New Proletarian), Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Ulema Council of India, Bibek Trust, Delhi Shramik Sangathan, All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushwarat, Nagarik Parishad, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO) and others.</p><p>Many prominent personalities from all over the country who have been fighting for human rights against state terrorism and state organized genocides would be addressing the rally.</p><h2><a href="/sites/default/files/images/red_rally_on_1984_carnage_1_nov_2015.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="The guilty of 1984 massacre must be punished!" src="/sites/default/files/images/red_rally_on_1984_carnage_1_nov_2015.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 652px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin: 5px;" title="The guilty of 1984 massacre must be punished!" /></a></h2><p><a class="ext" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/413597768834951/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></p><p><a class="ext" href="http://www.lokraj.org.in/?q=pages/punish-guilty-1984-massacre" target="_blank">Lok Raj Sanghatan</a></p><p>Poster: <a href="http://www.cgpi.org/system/files/private/1984_massacre-2015-poster.pdf" target="_blank">PDF </a> | <a href="http://www.cgpi.org/sites/default/files/images/rally_on_1984_riots_1_nov_2015.jpg" target="_blank">JPEG</a></p><p>Statements of CGPI:</p><p><a href="http://www.cgpi.org/statements/1604-against-communalism-and-f" target="_blank">Against Communalism and Fascist Terror in Punjab, September 1984</a></p><p><a href="http://www.cgpi.org/statements/1605-resolutely-condemn-savage" target="_blank">Resolutely Condemn the Savage Communal and Fascist Terror Unleashed by the Indian Ruling Classes!, November 1984</a></p><h2> </h2></div>
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 11:20:48 +0000cgpiadmin4319 at http://www.cgpi.org30th anniversary of 1984 genocidehttp://www.cgpi.org/mel/statements/3734-30th-anniversary-1984-gen
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">30th anniversary of 1984 genocide</span>
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<span>Wed, 29/10/2014 - 23:34</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/nov-1-15-2014" hreflang="en">Nov 1-15 2014</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/statements" hreflang="en">Statements</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/popular-movements" hreflang="en">Popular Movements </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>Towards a new state that ensures prosperity and protection for all!</h2><h4>Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 28th October, 2014</h4><p>Thirty years after the gruesome massacre of an estimated 10,000 people of the Sikh faith in Delhi, Kanpur, Bokaro and other places, the truth about that genocide remains hidden and the guilty remain unpunished. The rulers are free to commit more such crimes. </p><p>This 1<sup>st</sup> of November is the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of that horrific crime committed by <em>Bharat</em> <em>Sarkar</em> against its own citizens. Thousands of people will march in central Delhi to mark this occasion and demand justice. Representatives of the victims will be joined by a wide range of parties, including Communist Ghadar Party, and numerous other political organisations fighting for human rights and people’s empowerment, and justice loving personalities. </p><p>Faced with the demand for truth and justice, the official response is to say that we must “<em>forgive and forget</em>”. There are some voices calling for “<em>Truth and Reconciliation</em>”. Reconciliation means that once the truth is established, we must give up the demand for justice. </p><p>How can people accept that once guilt is established, the guilty must be forgiven? How can we accept that it is fine for the State, which is supposed to protect all citizens, to kill them instead? No, such an idea is unacceptable. There can be no reconciliation with the <em>adharma</em> of a State that kills its own citizens, instead of protecting them. </p><p>The facts about the massacre of Sikhs in November 1984, as well as the facts about the assassination of Indira Gandhi, which supposedly triggered the massacre, have been deliberately distorted in the official accounts. People continue to be fed with a pack of lies. </p><p>All official documents continue to refer to the “<em>anti-Sikh riots</em>” of 1984. The word <em>riot</em> means a spontaneous and violent outburst of anger by a large group of people. Rajiv Gandhi, who became the acting Prime Minister following the assassination of his mother, promoted this big lie by publicly saying, <em>“When a big tree falls, the earth will shake!”</em></p><p>There is ample evidence, including what our Party members and supporters saw with their own eyes and heard from the thousands of victims in relief camps in the Gurudwaras of Delhi in November 1984, which prove that the attack on Sikhs was not spontaneous at all. It was not a mass reaction to the killing of the then Prime Minister, as was implied by Rajiv Gandhi. It was pre-planned and overseen by the leaders of the ruling party, with full complicity of the security forces. It was a blatant act of state terrorism, targeted at people of a particular community, with no justification whatsoever. Every Sikh whose family had suffered inhuman atrocities said not a single word against Hindus. All their anger was directed against the Authority, the <em>Sarkar</em>.</p><p>It is by now a well-known and established fact that the assailants in all parts of Delhi had been supplied with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_list" title="Voter list">voter lists</a>, school registration forms and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Distribution_System" title="Public Distribution System">ration card lists</a>, by which to locate Sikh homes and shops. It is also an established fact that the security forces stood by watching the killing and looting, and in some cases intervened to disarm the Sikhs before they were attacked.</p><p>Communist Ghadar Party and other progressive forces in the country have been pointing out repeatedly, for the past 30 years, that it was not a riot. Calling it a riot means to turn the truth on its head. It creates the impression that it is the people on the streets who were to blame, not the authority. The truth is however the exact opposite. It is the State that organised the massacre. People tried their best to protect their neighbours from the assailants. It is the State that violated the rights of citizens and unleashed terror against innocent people.</p><p>The call to attack all Sikhs was given on 1<sup>st</sup> November, 1984, by political leaders of the ruling party, on the basis of propagating the lie that “<em>Sikhs have killed Indira Gandhi</em>”. It was a convenient fabrication, an assertion with no proof. </p><p>It was reported that the Prime Minister had been shot dead by one of her own personal bodyguards, in front of her house. The two personal bodyguards were immediately arrested and disarmed. Then one of them was killed in captivity, a suspicious act that remains a mystery till today. The motive for such an act was obviously to cover up the truth.</p><p>There are unofficial reports that the bullet which killed Indira Gandhi entered her body from behind and not from the front, where the two bodyguards were standing. Is it possible that one of the security men saw who actually shot her? Could that be the reason why he was killed after having been arrested? There are no answers to any of these questions. The assassination of Indira Gandhi is shrouded in mystery, as is the killing of her bodyguard in captivity. </p><p>A Prime Minister being shot dead by her bodyguard is a sign of serious crisis within the State machinery. It indicates the hand of some powerful interest. It ought to have prompted a serious investigation to find out which domestic or international force had masterminded this assassination, and to achieve what political end.</p><p>Without investigating who really was behind the conspiracy to kill Indira Gandhi, those in power started spreading the word that “<em>Sikhs have killed Indira Gandhi</em>”. They openly called for revenge, blood for blood, against the entire Sikh community.</p><p>A crisis within the state administration was deliberately presented in communal colours. The fact that the two bodyguards were Sikhs was used to blame an entire community and make them the target of an organised massacre. </p><p>The fact that the truth remains hidden even after 30 years shows that the ruling class does not want it to be revealed. It shows that the existing political system in our country is based on deceiving the people and keeping the truth hidden.</p><p>In response to the people’s continuing struggle for justice, several investigation commissions have been constituted. While exposing the involvement of individual political leaders, such official investigations failed to reveal what was going on at the top, such as in the Cabinet and in the Home Ministry, during those dark days of 1<sup>st</sup> to 3<sup>rd</sup> November. The official investigations have suffered from the fundamental flaw that the genocide is treated as a riot, and not as a politically motivated crime in which the party in power and the entire state machinery is guilty.</p><p>Since 1984, Congress Party has been replaced by different coalitions of parties, including the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Parties have replaced one another but justice has not been done about the crime committed in 1984. On the contrary, many more targeted killings by the state security forces have taken place, in many parts of the country. What does this show? It shows that periodically changing the party in power is not going to fulfill the demand for justice. The problem is deeper than just the party in power.</p><p>Considering the entire experience of the past 67 years since the end of British colonial rule, it is clear that no matter how many times parties change places in this system, the violence of the State against citizens has only grown from bad to worse. From the Hindus and Muslims of Punjab, Bengal and Kashmir during the Partition, to the Nagas, Manipuris, Mizos and Kashmiris for decades on end, the list of the victims of state terror has expanded to include the Sikhs in Punjab, Delhi and elsewhere, Muslims in Gujarat, UP and elsewhere, Christians and <em>adivasi</em>s in various regions. This shows that the root of the problem lies in the very foundation of the State we inherited in 1947. </p><p>The existing State is a continuation and further evolution of the colonial state. It is an instrument of divide and rule, an organ of oppression and terror, of rule by an exploiting minority class through the ballot and the bullet, and through the organising of diversions and periodic massacres of this or that section of the people.</p><p>From ancient times, people in this subcontinent have upheld the political principle that it is the duty of the <em>raja</em> to ensure prosperity and protection for the <em>praja</em>. Without protection, or <em>raksha</em>, prosperity is not possible. If a raja fails in this duty, if he oppresses the praja instead of providing raksha, it was considered to be the right and duty of the praja to get rid of such a raja. </p><p>Life experience has shown that the existing State is an instrument of oppression and terror. It will never ensure the protection of all citizens. We therefore have the right and the duty to get rid of this State and replace it with a new State that would guarantee prosperity and protection for all. </p><p>We need to make a clean break with the colonial and imperialist institutions and theories implanted by the British. We must draw on the best of Indian political theory and the most advanced scientific thought on the world scale. </p><p>On the occasion of the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the gruesome massacre of Sikhs organised by the Indian Republic, let us pledge to escalate the struggle for truth and justice, with the perspective of establishing a civilised Indian State committed to ensure prosperity and protection for all.</p></div>
Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:04:10 +0000cgpiadmin3734 at http://www.cgpi.orgOrganisers of genocide unpunished, lives of innocents destroyedhttp://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/3730-organisers-genocide-unpun
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Organisers of genocide unpunished, lives of innocents destroyed</span>
<span><span lang="" about="/users/admin" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">cgpiadmin</span></span>
<span>Fri, 17/10/2014 - 15:37</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/oct-16-31-2014" hreflang="en">Oct 16-31 2014</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/voice-party" hreflang="en">Voice of the Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/popular-movements" hreflang="en">Popular Movements </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>Scathing indictment of the state</h2><p>30 years ago, the then ruling Congress party with the active involvement of the police forces, carried out a terrible genocide of people of the Sikh faith. The streets of our capital Delhi, as well as the streets of many other cities of our country such as Kanpur, flowed with the blood of men, women and children. In broad daylight, people were burnt alive with the police supervising the genocide. A macabre “Diwali” was organised by the state with the slogan “Khoon ka badla khoon”. People of the Sikh faith, were pulled out from trains and buses, all over the country and brutally killed. The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi justified this in a public meeting in Delhi soon after, saying “when a big tree falls, the earth shakes”. </p><p>None of the leaders who organised this genocide, in which thousands of people were murdered and the lives of their families destroyed, has been punished in these 30 years. Numerous parties and coalitions have been in power, in this period, but nothing has changed as far as the question of punishing the guilty is concerned.</p><p>Thousands of people were killed in state sponsored massacres following the destruction of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Surat and other places. Thousands more were killed in the genocide of people of the Muslim faith in Gujarat in March 2002. In Kashmir, over 80,000 innocent people have been tortured and killed. Thousands of bodies of unidentified youth murdered by the security forces of the state have been recovered from the canals of Punjab. While thousands of youth of Assam and Manipur, and youth of the Muslim faith from all parts of the country, have been murdered in fake encounters, their killers roam the streets scot free. Communal killings of people continues till this date, as part of the official and preferred policy of the ruling class.</p><p>This is one side of the “rule of law and order” in our country. The other side is the lakhs of people rotting in the jails of our country for unproven crimes.</p><p>In September 2014, a bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then Chief Justice RM Lodha ordered the release of over 2 lakh people from the jails of our country on bail, who are undertrials, and have served over half the maximum jail term they could be awarded, if and when they are convicted when their trial came to a conclusion. According to official figures, this constitutes over 67% of the people in the jails of our country. The reason most of these victims of injustice have not come out on bail earlier is because they cannot afford the lawyers to bail them out, or the money required for bail!</p><p>Of 381,000 prisoners in jails across the country, over 254,000 are under trials, namely persons who have NOT yet been convicted of any crime and whose trials are going on. There is also very high number of prisoners who are not even charge sheeted and they also languish in the jails for long time.</p><p>Under the prevailing system in India, the police and other arms of the state have wide ranging powers to accuse and incarcerate people. Those who are poor and do not have the means to arrange for lawyers and/or sureties for bails, languish in jails for decades as under trials. In thousands upon thousands of cases, poor people undergoing trial who cannot arrange for sureties are condemned to be incarcerated for periods even longer than the maximum sentence that they would have been awarded if found guilty.</p><p>It is also well known that the police and other arms of the state regularly foist false criminal cases upon workers, union activists and others fighting against injustice. Over 150 workers of Maruthi Suzuki plant in Manesar are being held in jail after undergoing severe torture, for the crime of fighting to form their own union. Thousands of youth of the Muslim faith are picked up and locked up and tortured for months and years. Many have been released after several years, without even being charge-sheeted, during which time they have lost their livelihood and their families have undergone great suffering.</p><p>Large number of people have been arrested under black laws such as Terrorist and Disruptive activities Act (TADA), Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA), Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), etc.</p><p>For example, from 1984 onwards, approximately 75,000 people were detained under TADA; of these, at least 73,000 cases were subsequently withdrawn or acquitted. The conviction rate under TADA was less than one percent.</p><p>The State uses such black laws for arresting such large number of persons under this to deny them any opportunity for bail or justice and to harass and oppress them. They have also been used all over India to arrest Muslims, adivasis, dalits, workers and even children and keep them locked up in prisons.</p><p>Those who are responsible for ruining the lives of innocent people - police and other authorities starting with those in command, need to be punished severely. The Supreme Court order does not even talk about this. Nor does it address the question of why innocent people are regularly locked up and tortured and even killed by the state authorities or spell out measures to prevent the same in the future. The Supreme Court is silent on the use of fascist laws to arrest and torture innocent people. The Supreme Court order is also silent on whether speedy justice will be ensured for under trials in future.</p><p>The colonial era Criminal Procedure Code needs to be urgently repealed. This law was established to persecute the patriotic fighters for freedom. All the Preventive Detention laws are also modelled on similar colonial laws passed to incarcerate revolutionaries. They too need to be repealed. The colonialists ensured that there was no law to prosecute the rulers guilty of crimes against the people, including genocide. This state of affairs continues till today. The judiciary defends the “rule of law” of the reactionary bourgeoisie, and ensures the criminalisation of the vast masses of people and their struggles.</p><p>The toiling people of our country, all those fighting for justice and for a new society free from exploitation and oppression, state terrorism including state organised communal massacres, cannot hope for salvation from the Indian judiciary. The judiciary is but another arm of the reactionary state, aimed at legalising and justifying the suppression of the toiling masses. We need to fight for a new state power, the rule of the workers and peasants, in place of the rule of the bourgeoisie, so as to guarantee human, democratic and national rights for all. The judiciary under the rule of workers and peasants will ensure the enforcing of these rights.</p></div>
Fri, 17 Oct 2014 10:07:52 +0000cgpiadmin3730 at http://www.cgpi.org21 years after the destruction of the Babri Masjidhttp://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/3274-21-years-after-destructio
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">21 years after the destruction of the Babri Masjid</span>
<span><span lang="" about="/users/vivek" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">vivek</span></span>
<span>Sun, 01/12/2013 - 21:25</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/gujarat-genocide" hreflang="en">Gujarat genocide</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/congress-party" hreflang="en">Congress Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/bjp" hreflang="en">BJP</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/babri-masjid" hreflang="en">Babri Masjid</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/dec-1-15-2013" hreflang="en">Dec 1-15 2013</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/voice-party" hreflang="en">Voice of the Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/communalism" hreflang="en">Communalism </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>State organized communal violence and terror remains the preferred weapon of the ruling class</h2><p>The destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 was carried out with the full complicity of the Congress Party government at the centre and the BJP government in UP. Large-scale communal violence in Mumbai, Surat and many other places was organized during the months that followed, with thousands of people being terrorised and killed on the basis of their religious identity, and the central and state governments failing to protect the people.</p><p>This destructive act which shocked the masses of Indian people, was carried out following a concerted campaign, for nearly three years before this, for building a Ram Mandir at the site of the Babri Masjid. While the BJP led this campaign, the Congress government acted as "mediator" between Hindu and Muslim religious leaders, allowing the dispute to continue.</p><p>The destruction of the Babri Masjid showed once again, that organizing communal violence and terror remains the preferred weapon of our rulers, to divide the toiling people and divert them from the real issues facing them. In November 1984, the assassination of Indira Gandhi was used by the Congress party and government to unleash genocide against people of the Sikh community. Similarly, in 2002, people of the Muslim community were the target of brutal communal violence organised by the BJP government in Gujarat. Targeted communal violence and massacres have been organized time and again, against the Christian community in Orissa and other communities as well, the latest being the bloody communal violence organized last month in Muzaffarnagar, UP.</p><p>While different communities may have been targeted each time, the same diabolical methods have been used to execute these crimes, with the governments in the state as well as at the centre -- irrespective of which political party is leading it -- and the entire state machinery at its command fully facilitating its execution. In each case, the aim has been the same, i.e. to terrorise and divide the people, to crush the united popular opposition to the agenda of the ruling bourgeoisie.</p><p>Spokespersons for the ruling class, including representatives of various political parties, repeatedly promote the notion that the source of communalism and communal violence lies in <em>religious fundamentalism </em>of various organisations of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others. Through numerous TV debates and other forms of propaganda they argue that the <em>people</em> <em>are communal while the Indian state is secular</em>. Nothing can be further from the truth.</p><p>The events over the last 6 decades and more confirm time and again that the Indian state is communal to the core, as are all the political parties representing the interests of the ruling bourgeois class. They clearly reveal that the "secularism" of the Indian state is an imperialist philosophy inherited from the British colonialists, who implemented the policy of "divide-and-rule" but preached “<em>tolerance</em>” while inciting people to fight one another on the basis of religion. They spread the notion that people in India are communal and fighting one another and that it was the “<em>white man’s burden</em>” to maintain “<em>communal harmony</em>”. The Indian state has continued to uphold the same practice and promotes the same notion, in order to divide the polity between "secular" and "communal" and confuse people about the real source of communalism and communal violence.</p><p>The demolition of the Babri Masjid exposed to our people their complete powerlessness under the existing political system. People were outraged that the two biggest parties in Parliament can get away with any heinous crime to expand their vote banks and to divert and divide the people. The police and state authorities fully facilitate these crimes against the innocent people while the guilty, those who masterminded these crimes not only go unpunished but are even rewarded with ministerial posts. And the people have no power to halt or prevent these crimes. It drew people to the inevitable conclusion that we have to organise to get rid of such a system and replace it with one in which people have political power in their own hands. The outrage among the people following the events of 1992 played an important part in giving rise to the movement for people’s empowerment.</p><p>In the last 20 years, the political representatives of the ruling bourgeois class have been increasingly resorting to the politics of communal violence and terror in order to achieve their political aims. What the last 20 years have confirmed is that the state and its organs – including the legal and judicial systems, the various commissions of inquiry, and so on – cannot be relied on to get justice for the victims of communal violence. The Indian state uses communalism and secularism as two sides of the same coin, to split and divert the people. The aim is to prevent the people from understanding the real source of their exploitation and oppression under this system and from coming together to fight it.</p><p>As long as the present political and economic system of the bourgeois class continues, our people will be subjected to more calamities like the events of December 1992. The challenge before the working class and all people of conscience is to put an end to this system and replace it with a new system in which the toiling people will have political power in their hands, to set the agenda of society in the interests of the vast majority and deal the harshest punishment to all those who inflict such crimes on our people. In such a system, state organized communal and terrorist violence will have no place and the rights, the lives and liberties of every human being will be secure.</p></div>
Sun, 01 Dec 2013 15:55:28 +0000vivek3274 at http://www.cgpi.org29 years after the 1984 Sikh Genocidehttp://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/3240-29-years-after-1984-sikh
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">29 years after the 1984 Sikh Genocide</span>
<span><span lang="" about="/users/vivek" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">vivek</span></span>
<span>Sun, 10/11/2013 - 02:19</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/1984-sikh-genocide" hreflang="en">1984 Sikh genocide</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/nov-16-30-2013" hreflang="en">Nov 16-30 2013</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/voice-party" hreflang="en">Voice of the Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/popular-movements" hreflang="en">Popular Movements </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>The Struggle to Punish the Guilty Continues</h2><p>29 years after the cold-blooded, organised genocide of Sikhs by the ruling Congress Party, the struggle to ensure that the guilty are punished continues unabated. Through political protests on the streets and other actions as well as legal battles in the courts, the struggle continues, to secure justice for the victims of this horrific massacre and punishment for its organizers and perpetrators. Activists and supporters of Lok Raj Sangathan, Communist Ghadar Party of India, Sikh Forum, Forgotten Citizens, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, SUCI-Communist, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, families of the victims, youth, women and workers gathered at Jantar Mantar to remember this tragic event and pledge to continue the struggle to its logical conclusion, when those responsible for the genocide are punished for their crimes and a system is established in which such state organized genocides will never take place.</p><p>Banners declaring "Punish the guilty of the genocide of November 1984!", "Down with state organized communal violence and terror!", "The Indian state is communal, not the Indian people!" attracted hundreds of people to the site of the dharna. Participants carried placards with slogans such as "Down with state organized communal and sectarian violence!", "Down with state terrorism!", "Punish the guilty!", "Congress Party and BJP are both communal to the core!", "Down with the policy of divide-and-rule!".</p><p>Speakers at the rally pointed out that even after all these years, no party in power at the center has bothered to ensure that the guilty are punished. Instead, in these 29 years, many more communal massacres have taken place, such as in 1992-93, 2002, the Assam massacres, the Kandhamal massacres, the recent communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and so on. Many of them were of the view that precisely because the guilty of 1984 were never punished, the subsequent massacres have been<br />carried out with impunity.</p><p>The repeated incidences of state organized violence are a testimony to the fact that organizing communal violence continues to be a preferred weapon in the hands of the ruling elite to keep the people divided and use them as vote banks by playing on their fears during elections, speakers said. In the run-up to the Delhi elections, the leaders of the Congress Party are accusing those of the BJP of organizing the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Gujarat genocide, while the leaders of the BJP are in-turn accusing the Congress of organizing the genocide of Sikhs. Both are telling the truth. In this, their aim is not to see that the guilty are punished. Instead, they are actually threatening the people with the possibility of more such genocides, whoever comes to power.</p><p>Among those who addressed the rally were Birju Nayak - Secretary of Delhi Council of Lok Raj Sangathan and candidate for the Delhi Assembly elections from Tughlakabad, Jarnail Singh, senior Journalist and a committed fighter for punishing the guilty, Renu Nayak of the Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Wing Commander Chhatwal, the chief organizer of the Sikh Forum, S Raghavan, President of Lok RaJ Sangathan, advocate H.S.Phoolka of the Supreme Court who has been fighting for justice for the victims of 1984, comrade Tyagi of SUCI-Communist and comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of Communist Ghadar Party of India. Nirpreet Kaur, daughter of one of the victims of the genocide, narrated at length the entire sequence of events that led to her father’s death at the hands of Congress goons, and how the neighbours helped their family, even at the risk of being targeted themselves. She questioned the court, which believed in the testimonies of the policemen who came to the defence of the accused, Sajjan Kumar, when the entire evidence was against him.</p><p>S. Raghavan, president of Lok Raj Sangathan drew attention to the fact that the Indian state is communal and uses communalism, communal violence and state terrorism to divide and divert people and impose their rule. Our rulers have learnt this from their British colonial masters and continue to use it against our people, to instill fear in them and to keep them as their captive vote banks. The root of state-organised communal violence lies in the present political process where people are marginalized and have no say in actions and decisions concerning them. To put an end to communal violence we need to thoroughly overhaul this political process. The only way we can ensure that the guilty will be punished it to fight to establish a system in which the people will have political power in their own hands, make laws that will uphold the concept of command responsibility and punish not just those who execute such massacres, but also the real organisers, those who hold positions of power and fail to use their position to prevent such crimes.</p><p>The demonstration was concluded by Prakash Rao, spokesperson of Communist Ghadar Party of India, who pointed out that we cannot expect justice from parties such as the Congress and the BJP. It is no accident that none of the guilty has been punished for genocide of 1984 even after 29 years, because it was consciously organized and the highest leadership of the Congress Party and state were the organizers. Likewise, we cannot expect that the government will enact a law that can actually prevent state organized communal massacres like 1984 and 2002. What justice can you expect from a mass murderer? If and when they finally enact a law, they will make sure that it should be written in such a way that the guilty of 1984, 2002 etc can never be punished. We must push hard that the government enact a strong law, as proposed by various activists who have been involved in the struggle to punish the guilty.</p><p>He reiterated that the present state is the creation of the British, who implanted the seeds of communalism on our soil, which our rulers continue to nurture and use it to divide and divert people’s struggle. We will continue this struggle. The people of India will create a new state, which will guarantee that such tragedies never happen and the guilty are punished.</p><p>The demonstration ended with a song exhorting all citizens and the youth to rise up, unite, end the injustice and create a New India.</p><p>A press release issued by Lok Raj Sangathan on the occasion stated that “Lok Raj Sangathan has been consistently opposing all forms of state terrorism and communal persecution, demanding severe punishment for those guilty of organizing sectarian violence for narrow partisan ends, as well for those guilty of dereliction of responsibility to protect people's lives. We have always believed that if the guilty of 1984 had been punished promptly and severely, it would have acted as a strong deterrent against subsequent genocides.</p><p>It is also our firm belief that increasing criminalization of politics in our country stems from the fact that the present system marginalizes people from political power. This is why Lok Raj Sangathan has been persistently fighting for a new political system and process wherein people will be empowered, political parties will be required to enable the people to rule; and parties that commit crimes against the people will have no space to exist.</p><p>On this solemn day, in remembrance of the victims of the 1984 genocide, Lok Raj Sangathan calls on all justice-loving people, organizations and political forces to continue their struggle to ensure punishment for those guilty of organising communal and sectarian violence, and for those in responsible command positions who participated in it or allowed it to happen. Let us advance our struggle for justice with the perspective of creating a new political process, where the people will be empowered to set the agenda and run the affairs of society.”</p><h3>Candle light march and play</h3><p>At 5 pm, on November 1, families of victims of the November 84 genocide, as well as activists working tirelessly for ensuring justice, gathered at Jantar Mantar for a candle light march. This program was organized by concerned organizations with Nirpreet Kaur playing an important guiding role.</p><p>The march was preceded by a moving play performed by a group from Patiala, depicting the struggle for justice of a young widow whose beautiful family had been torn asunder by the murderous mobs29 years ago. She had lost her army husband, and her two sons, and she had been raped by the gangsters led by Congress leaders.</p><p>Effigies of Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler were burnt, before those present marched with candles to signify their protest.</p></div>
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 20:49:08 +0000vivek3240 at http://www.cgpi.orgAnniversary of Operation Blue Star http://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/3000-anniversary-operation-blu
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Anniversary of Operation Blue Star </span>
<span><span lang="" about="/users/vivek" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">vivek</span></span>
<span>Wed, 19/06/2013 - 00:34</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/operation-blue-star" hreflang="en">Operation Blue Star</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/golden-temple" hreflang="en">Golden Temple</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/jun-16-30-2013" hreflang="en">Jun 16-30 2013</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/voice-party" hreflang="en">Voice of the Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/rights" hreflang="en">Rights </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>State terrorism targeted against any community must be condemned</h2><p>June 6 marked the 29th anniversary of Operation Blue Star - an armed assault on the most sacred shrine of the Sikhs, the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Thirty eight other gurdwaras across Punjab were also attacked and thousands of innocent Sikh men women and children lost their lives. It was one of the most barbaric acts of systematic state terror unleashed against people of the Sikh faith. It was followed by the genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and other towns in November 1984, and the systematic harassment, torture and cold blooded killing of thousands of Sikh youth in the years that followed.</p><p>In the name of “flushing out terrorists”, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the army to attack the Golden Temple with heavy tank and artillery fire, killing more than 4,712 people, according to the figures released in the White Paper on Operation Bluestar that was placed by the government before parliament. The sacred shrine, the Akal Takht, was razed to the ground. Operation Blue Star was executed on a day sacred for women and men of the Sikh faith, the martyrdom day of Guru Arjun Dev, when thousands of ordinary people had gathered at the Golden Temple.</p><p>The 1980’s had witnessed very intensive revolts of the peasants in all the states where the much acclaimed “Green Revolution” had impacted their livelihood. The “Green Revolution” gave great impetus to the development of capitalism in agriculture. Its rapid growth in the 1966-76 period was responsible for the uneven development in different parts of the state, as well as for widening the gap between the rich and the poor at an unprecedented rate. Workers too were up in arms in several major industrial centres and towns across the country. In Punjab, the struggle became intense. The discrimination faced by the Punjabi nation at the hands of the Central State fueled immense discontent amongst the people of Punjab. Demands to end this discrimination were being raised forcefully, and became a focal point for mobilization of the people, particularly the peasantry.</p><p>To crush this revolt of the workers and peasants, to divide and disorient them, the Indian state with the help of its agencies deliberately fomented divisions on the basis of Hindu and Sikh. Directly through its police forces in civil uniform, as well as by organizing terrorist gangs, it carried out cold blooded murder of people of the Hindu faith and then blamed it on the people of the Sikh faith. By unleashing state and individual terror, it smashed the movement for political and economic demands. The people of the Sikh faith were portrayed as anti national — enemies of “national unity and territorial integrity”.</p><p>Following Operation Blue Star, the army organized Operation Woodrose, unleashing a reign of terror on people in the rural areas of Punjab and attacking rural gurudwaras. Thousands of innocents were killed in this operation. For a decade after that, tens of thousands of Sikhs were massacred by the state security forces in Punjab, Delhi and other places in fake encounters. Thousands were tortured and incarcerated in the jails on charges of being terrorists. Countless youth were killed in custody or simply reported ‘missing’. Hundreds of bodies were later recovered from the rivers and canals, where they had been dumped by the notorious Punjab Police. Human rights activists were simply murdered.</p><p>The Indian State followed in the footsteps of their colonial masters in communalizing the situation in Punjab, right from 1947. The British had engineered the division of the Punjab on religious basis with the Congress Party and the Muslim League collaborating in the communal partition of Punjab, Bengal and Assam. Later on, the Nehru government fomented divisions on the basis of language and carried out a further division of Punjab. The policy of divide and rule was instituted in the full sense of the term. Punjabis were not considered as Punjabis but as Hindus and Sikhs. The struggle for the rights of the people of Punjab was portrayed as a movement of Sikhs against Hindus.</p><p>The ruling class used Blue Star and the communalisation of politics to divide the working class and people of our country to divert them from fighting for their immediate and long term concerns. The Congress government portrayed itself as “defender of national unity and territorial integrity”, whipped up anti Sikh hysteria all over the country, and pushed through its anti people program under the slogan of “modernization”.</p><p>The case of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row after his mercy petition to the President of India was turned down in May 2011, is a stark and live example of state terrorism in Punjab. Bhullar was a professor of engineering in the early 1990s who felt strongly about students who went missing during the late ‘80s and ‘90s in Punjab; and he spoke openly about it. And that is why he was picked up by the Punjab police on the allegation that he was the organizer of two bomb blasts, the first in Chandigarh and the second, in Delhi. The first time the police came for him and he was not found, they picked up his father, uncle and a cousin. None of them was seen again. His father-in-law was also picked up and tortured. Today, Bhullar is undergoing treatment for depression and psychosis, and is a very sick man with the death penalty hanging over him for alleged crimes that have not been proven.</p><p>To this day there has been no accountability for the brutal killings of civilians and pilgrims by the Indian army or for the wanton looting and destruction of the Sikh Reference Library which contained many priceless documents and manuscripts. No one has been punished for the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent Sikhs during that entire period. On the contrary, in these 29 years, the weapon of state terrorism and individual terrorism has been further perfected to target this or that section of the people and achieve the political aims of the ruling class.</p><p>29 years have passed since Operation Blue Star. The people have not forgotten. Hundreds of them marched in protest on June 06 this year, in remembrance of this day on 1984, across the world – in India, the US, UK and other places.</p><p>Worried about the growing demand of our people, both in India and internationally, that those guilty of state terrorism and the genocide of Sikhs in Delhi be punished, the UPA government is deliberately brandishing the specter of “Sikh terrorism”. On June 05, 2013, the eve of the anniversary of Operation Blue Star, Home Minister Shinde, while addressing the Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security, said: “There have also been some significant developments on the Sikh militancy front. Its commanders based in Pakistan are under pressure from ISI to further ISI’s terror plans not only in Punjab but also in other parts of the country. Sikh youth are being trained in ISI facilities in Pakistan. Interdictions and interrogations have revealed use of jailed cadres, unemployed youth, criminals and smugglers by Pak based Sikh terror groups for facilitating terror attacks. Sikh youth based and settled in Europe and US are also being motivated in this regard.” This is a naked threat to the people demanding justice, that the government will not hesitate to communalise and criminalise this struggle, and crush it by deploying its favourite weapon of state and individual terrorism.</p><p>The target of state terrorism is in every case the workers and peasants and people of oppressed nationalities. It is aimed at preventing a political solution to political problems. State and individual terrorism, together with the present system of parliamentary democracy are the preferred weapons of the ruling class to maintain their rule. This is what the experience of our people since Operation Bluestar confirms again and again. Therefore, while consistently exposing and opposing state and individual terrorism, our Party strives to unite the workers and peasants and all the oppressed around the aim of ushering in a superior democracy and building a new society through social revolution. What is needed is proletarian democracy, a system wherein the workers and peasants will rule and reorient the economy to ensure that the well being of the present and future generations is assured.</p></div>
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:04:02 +0000vivek3000 at http://www.cgpi.orgTaking the struggle for justice to its logical conclusionhttp://www.cgpi.org/mel/letters-editor/2967-taking-struggle-justice-i
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Taking the struggle for justice to its logical conclusion</span>
<span><span lang="" about="/users/vivek" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">vivek</span></span>
<span>Wed, 05/06/2013 - 16:20</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/1984-sikh-genocide" hreflang="en">1984 Sikh genocide</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/jun-1-15-2013" hreflang="en">Jun 1-15 2013</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/letters-editor" hreflang="en">Letters to Editor</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/communalism" hreflang="en">Communalism </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Sir,</p><p>I would like to the CC of the CGPI dated 7th May, 2013 `Acquittal of Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 genocide is a blatant act of injustice!' It is a particularly brave stand to take due to the bourgeois pressure to accept the ruling of some of their hallowed institutions including that of the juidiciary.</p><p>In this particular case, it is evident to any casual observer that the entire episode is a blatantly political one. Furthermore, it is evident that no principle of natural justice has prevailed in the case where the "benefit of doubt" has been awarded to the accused, namely Mr. Sajjan Kumar, a well known figure among the set of masterminds of the 1984 Sikh genocide. Also, it is well known that it was the entire Congress party machinery that was responsible for what happened at that time, which used naked and hidden violence, threats, terror, etc., to come to power in 1984. The statement also exposes the lies behind official propaganda that somehow the Congress party is better than the BJP because its leader has expressed an apology, but the statement correctly points out that this apology is an insult to the people of India. This explodes the myth propagated wittingly or otherwise in certain even well meaning sections of Indian opinion. Thus, given the realities of the Indian polity, it is no surprise that Mr. Sajjan Kumar has been acquitted.</p><p>In fact, any observer of the Indian polity will also not fail to observe that it is the state institutions and political parties that are the fountainhead of violence in India for a long time coming, including from the early 1980's when in Punjab a terror campaign was unleashed to crush the revolt of workers, peasants and those behind the campaign for national rights. Thus the 1984 Sikh genocide was a logical continuation of this campaign of terror. Such terror is a handmaiden of the Indian state which is that of the big bourgeoisie which stands in opposition to everyone else in the country, most of all to the toiling masses and the workers and peasantry. Terror has been a weapon in the hands of the bourgeoisie to be used from time to time to create conditions whereby unpopular steps can be taken by them to reorient the economy or to wriggle out of their own crises.</p><p>Indeed, rather than moan and groan at this state of affairs, the statement spells out what is to be done: it states that the people `... must organise to replace the rule of arbitrariness with a new political power where the people themselves will be both the rulers and ruled.' This must become the rallying political slogan of the times. Indeed, I would like to echo the following from the statement `We must take the struggle for justice to its logical conclusion, which is the Navnirman of the system of democracy and political process, so as to empower the people'.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p>S. Nair, Kochi</p></div>
Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:50:31 +0000vivek2967 at http://www.cgpi.orgPunish the guilty!http://www.cgpi.org/mel/struggle-rights/2930-punish-guilty
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Punish the guilty!</span>
<span><span lang="" about="/users/vivek" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">vivek</span></span>
<span>Fri, 17/05/2013 - 00:17</span>
<a href="/category/campaign/punish-guilty" hreflang="en">Punish the Guilty</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/shiromani-akali-dal" hreflang="en">Shiromani Akali Dal</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/lok-raj-sangathan-lrs" hreflang="en">Lok Raj Sangathan (LRS)</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/cgpi" hreflang="en">CGPI</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/carnage-1984" hreflang="en">Carnage 1984</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/aam-aadmi-party" hreflang="en">Aam Aadmi Party</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/keywords/1984-sikh-genocide" hreflang="en">1984 Sikh genocide</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/mel-date-range/may-16-31-2013" hreflang="en">May 16-31 2013</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/section/mel/struggle-rights" hreflang="en">Struggle for Rights</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/history" hreflang="en">History</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/popular-movements" hreflang="en">Popular Movements </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/category/subject/rights" hreflang="en">Rights </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Narpreet Kaur, whose father was one of the victims of the 1984 genocide of Sikhs, sat on a hunger-strike and protest at Jantar Mantar between May 3-8 with her demand for punishment of those guilty of this crime.</p><p>Thousands of women and men participated in this protest that lasted for six days. The Communist Ghadar party of India, Lok Raj Sangathan, Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Delhi participated in the protests. Several speakers joined Comrade Prakash Rao – spokesperson of the CGPI and Shri S Raghavan, All-India President of Lok Raj Sangathan in addressing the protest gathering.</p><p>Lok Raj Sangathan had hoisted many banners in support of the protest and with the demand of punishing the guilty. The banners carried the slogans: “The genocide of Sikhs in November 1984 can never be forgotten”, “The struggle to Punish the Guilty of the November 1984 genocide will continue”, “The Indian state is communal, not the Indian people”, “Punish the guilty of the 1984 Sikh genocide”, “Down with State terrorism”, “Unite against state-organised communal violence”, “An attack on one is an attack on all”, “Communal violence is the preferred weapon of the state to divide the people”, “Why have not the Congress leaders responsible for the Sikh genocide punished till date?”. Lok Raj Sangathan’s statement was also distributed in hundreds among the people.</p><p>It is significant to note that the acquittal by the courts on May 1st, of Sajjan Kumar, former MP of the Congress Party and one of the accused in the 1984 genocide organized by the Congress Party, was met with widespread protests in Delhi.</p><p>The protestors unanimously said that this court decision was to save the real organiser of the massacre – the Congress Party. They said that the law of the land and the judicial system has repeatedly failed to give them justice, In our country the judicial system operates to serve the political interest of the ruling party.</p><p>Addressing the protestors Bijju Nayak of Lok Raj Sangathan said that it is meaningless to expect justice from those whose hands are red with the blood of the victims. People of this country will have to take political power in their own hands and ensure justice by punishing the guilty and ensuring that such state sponsored communal massacre are put to an end forever.</p></div>
Thu, 16 May 2013 18:47:09 +0000vivek2930 at http://www.cgpi.org